BATON ROUGE MAN SENTENCED TO 48 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT BANK FRAUD AND THEFT OF MAIL

Marvell Trevenski Jackson, Jr., age 26, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison following his convictions for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail, announced U.S. Attorney Kurt L. Wall. United States District Judge Brian A. Jackson further sentenced Jackson to three years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment. Jackson was also ordered to pay $378,394.00 in restitution and to forfeit an additional $238,804.45 to the United States.

According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, Jackson conspired with others to defraud federally insured financial institutions, including Neighbor's Federal Credit Union ("NFCU"), Essential Federal Credit Union ("EFCU"), First Guarantee Bank and Trust ("FGB"), Navy Federal Credit Union ("Navy FCU"), and Regions Bank, among others. Jackson and his co-conspirators employed a variety of methods, including stealing or obtaining stolen mail to obtain personal and financial information of bank customers; altering or washing checks stolen from the mail; creating counterfeit checks using stolen bank account information; disseminating spam text messages designed to trick bank customers into revealing bank account information and login credentials; and using that confidential information to unlawfully access and transfer funds from victims' accounts. Jackson also recruited other individuals, commonly known as "money mules," either to open accounts or to use existing accounts to receive the fraud proceeds. Once the stolen funds were deposited into the accounts held by the money mules or other co-conspirators, these individuals withdrew the funds, keeping a portion for themselves and providing the majority to Jackson.

Additionally, Jackson stole mail, including personal and business checks totaling at least $20,378 that had been placed for collection in the blue boxes at the U.S. Postal Service's office on Florida Street in Baton Rouge. These stolen checks and others, totaling over $270,000, were later located in a residence used by Jackson, along with the tools and supplies required for printing counterfeit checks.

In total, Jackson and his conspirators obtained or sought to obtain over $500,000 by negotiating, and attempting to negotiate, altered or counterfeit checks using checks and other financial data obtained from stolen U.S. mail.

Members of the conspiracy also engaged in "smishing," short for "SMS phishing," a cyber-attack technique whereby perpetrators use Short Message Service ("SMS") or text messages purporting to be from reputable companies to induce victims to reveal personal information, such as usernames, passwords, or bank account numbers. Jackson and his co-conspirators executed the smishing scheme in East Baton Rouge Parish, Iberville Parish, Livingston Parish, and others, defrauding financial institutions, including NFCU, EFCU, FGB, and their customers of over $300,000.

U.S. Attorney Kurt L. Wall praised the work of the U.S. Postal Service, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office, Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, and Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office in investigating this matter. "This was a fantastic effort by a team of agencies that worked together along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul L. Pugliese. Marvel Jackson is a professional scammer and deserves every day of that sentence and more," Wall said.